


i'm the kinda kid that can't let anything go

by doradoh (queenfizzy)



Series: we know what we are (but know not what we may be) [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Spies & Secret Agents, Vignette, brucenat isn't the nicest sorry guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29808258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenfizzy/pseuds/doradoh
Summary: the first part of my mcu rewrite - vignette style, starting with age of ultron and continuing on.“Stick around tomorrow and you’ll find out,” she smirked. There was a pause before the smirk slid from her face and she glanced around them down the hallway before whispering, “Honestly? I want you guys around to watch my back, just in case something goes wrong.”or; the lies we tell to keep others safe. steve just wants his friends, bruce just wants some semblance of normalcy , and natasha... well, natasha always does her job.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Series: we know what we are (but know not what we may be) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2191104
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	i'm the kinda kid that can't let anything go

**Author's Note:**

> this is an edited reupload of something i tried to make on a different account years ago. hopefully i actually do something with it now! please comment changes/povs/conversations/etc you'd like to see within the mcu and i'll totally take them into account!
> 
> (yes the title is a fob lyric)

Usually Steve enjoyed watching Natasha work. It’s interesting, seeing how easily she wrapped people around her little finger, dragged them into the webs that gave her the name black widow. He usually found it impressive, standing back and watching her slip into someone else’s skin.

Not today.

Today she wasn’t working on some dumbass mark, or a HYDRA bastard who deserved what he got. Today - and almost every day for the past several months - Natasha’s mark had been Bruce. And no, Bruce doesn’t deserve the runaround, doesn’t deserve to be lied to and strung along, but hitching him to Natasha is the best chance they’ve got to make sure the Hulk doesn’t hurt anyone if something goes wrong on a mission. 

Steve remembered being holed up somewhere with Sam in the Ukraine chasing another cold lead when he heard the news. The Hulk had been hit with some sort of electric bolt that was somehow strong enough to hurt him. A rampage through a city in Thailand; civilians dead. He’d come back a couple weeks later to Tony making a secret suit of armor and Natasha smiling simpering, sticky sweet smiles at a shell-shocked Bruce. The sense of wrongness was so intense that he cornered Natasha within a few hours of arriving, Sam on his left, fixing her in place with her eyes. 

For a master spy Natasha broke quick, and Steve chose to see that as her trusting him rather than her playing him.

“Tony asked me to,” Natasha said, losing her soft features, all business, “and I agreed. We’re testing out a theory.”

“Oh, a theory? Interesting! Care to share?” Sam deadpanned.

“Stick around tomorrow and you’ll find out,” she smirked. There was a pause before the smirk slid from her face and she glanced around them down the hallway before whispering, “Honestly? I want you guys around to watch my back, just in case something goes wrong.”

\---  
Steve and Sam stuck around for at least one more day. A piece of Steve was itching to hop on a quinjet to Helsinki, desperate to chase down a lead one of his old SHIELD contacts had sent over, but the other part knew he shouldn’t ditch living friends to chase down ghost stories.

The next morning Tony gathered them all and they took the elevator down, down, down, deeper than Steve knew the tower went, emerging into a large chamber with white walls and black cameras in the corners. 

“Nothing here for you to smash, buddy,” Tony grinned, clasping Bruce on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine.”

Bruce nodded, gulping nervously, taking off his glasses and handing them to Natasha. She took them in one smooth movement, slipping them into her pocket before placing a hand on bruce’s shoulder. 

“You’ll be fine,” she promised, smiling softly. She turned, following Tony to the observation room that was built into the wall. The rest of them followed, leaving Bruce alone, surrounded by white.

Once they were all safely in the observation room, Bruce “hulked out”. Steve was on guard, but the Hulk didn’t do much. Tony opened compartments and trap doors, pressing buttons on a glowing control panel in front of him, throwing debris into the room. The Hulk destroyed everything he threw in but, strangely, made no effort to break out. After a while Tony stopped slamming buttons and took a deep breath, looking at Natasha.

“Well,” he drawled, “Guess it’s time for the real test.” His grin was good and practiced, but not quite enough to cover his worry.

Natasha nodded, stepping forward and walking out the hidden door with her chin set. Steve watched carefully, but didn’t make any move to stand in. She’d never allow it. He shared a longsuffering look with Clint, and they readied to jump in at the first sign of danger. Natasha walked confidently across the room, straight at the Hulk, somehow getting close without flinching. They all watched in amazement as the Hulk didn’t attack her, letting her walk unmolested across the floor until she was right in front of him. She said something that the mics don’t catch, Tony scowling at them as though their failure was a personal insult, and suddenly the green faded. There, stood in the Hulk’s place, was Bruce, half-naked and panting like he’d just run a marathon. 

Silence fell through the cavernous room. No one was sure what to say. Natasha spoke softly to Bruce, smiling at him, touching their foreheads together before turning back to the observation room and locking eyes with Steve through the window. He inclined his head, and that was that. 

He and Sam left for Helsinki that evening.

\--

Months later he’s standing at a bar in the tower watching Natasha work on Bruce once again. It was annoying in various ways, but mostly because it kept Natasha from joining him in his search for Bucky and because it reduced her place on the team to babysitter, and people are treating her accordingly. She was on the team because she belonged here, not because she’s the Hulk-wrangler, but no one seemed to remember that.

Still, she’d managed to get the tip off about the HYDRA base they’d destroyed today with one hand tied behind her back, which was impressive. Recently he’d been hoping that things would settle down, Bruce would gain some confidence, and she wouldn’t need to hang around him all the time. 

The party roared around them, the only three people at the bar, and while everyone else was relaxing, Steve watched Natasha work, smiling and flirting with Bruce. the sinking feeling in his chest grew, but Bruce didn’t seem to see anything wrong, nervously flirting back and watching with wide eyes as Natasha walked away. 

She brushed past him, giving him a look, and then she’s off to another part of the open concept floor plan, probably to keep working somewhere else. It’s like she doesn’t know how to relax. Bruce stayed at the bar and Steve watched as he wilted, the little confidence he’d gained draining out of him as he had time to think.

Fuck, Steve thought, but that reminded him of his slip up earlier, lost in a European winter, forgetting that it wasn’t the Howling Commandos around him, flooding the comms. Instead his unsteady coworkers who didn’t know him well enough to recognize when he was teasing.

He shook himself out of the past, memories of both hours ago and years ago fading before his eyes as he focused back on bruce. If he ever wanted Natasha’s help on his “little project” again, he needed to help with hers. Her strategic exit had been part of routine, carefully orchestrated to let Bruce have some line so she could reel him in later. It was one of her best tricks, Steve had seen her use it time and time again. But Bruce was different to her usual marks, and instead of psyching himself up about her he was psyching himself out. Steve needed to throw his hat in the ring and help.

Steve steeled himself, walking over to Bruce, acting like he wanted a beer and talking to Bruce was just a nice bonus. “It’s nice,” he commented as casually as he could, starting slow. Bruce startled when he talked, Steve can tell by the way the man nervously patted down the front of his suit and inched away. 

Internally, Steve sighed. He’s not the fun police. and besides, his one major almost-relationship -- which everyone knows about -- was with a superior. It’s beyond him why Bruce would think steve saw anything wrong with a little flirting on the job, but Bruce was clearly afraid of a reprimand. 

Still, Steve pressed on - reassuring bruce, congratulating him, trying to get him to believe in himself. “She’s not the most open person.” Steve started, and he felt like laughing, or maybe crying at his own awkwardness. He’s so not cut out for this.

Bruce tried to brush it off, because of course he does. He claimed it's just Natasha being a flirt, being herself. Steve shook his head. 

“I’ve seen her flirt, up close. this isn’t that.” Steve didn’t lie often, and each word fell like rocks from his lips, but Bruce ate them up. Steve stepped closer, walking down the length of the bar, focusing only on Bruce as people passed around them.

“Look,” Steve sighed, not sure what where he’s going with this. He’s still half in the past, apparently, because the next words out of his mouth startled him, “As maybe the world’s leading authority on waiting too long: don’t. You both deserve a win.”

They nodded to each other, suddenly awkward, and Steve headed back to Sam and the rest of his old war buddies and maybe even Thor, if he’s lucky. The place was big and teeming with people, but they managed to carve themselves a little hole off to the side. As Steve walked slowly through the crowd, maneuvering around industrial furniture made with sleek, techy lines. a sense of wrongness flooded through him. But by this long in the twenty-first century he’s used to it. He knew he didn’t belong here, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The same way he didn’t belong on a spy mission between friends, but that’s where he put himself a minute ago, for some reason. To help. all he ever did was try to help and he kept ending up places he didn’t belong.

“You okay?” Sam asked, clasping him on his shoulder. Steve glanced up suddenly, not realizing he’d made his way back. He looked around the semicircle of faces, some new, some different (older) but all familiar, sequestered off in a little back corner like always. 

Steve grinned. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he grabbed Sam's other shoulder, putting them in a strange sort of side hug, and dragged him forward to talk to some of his old war buddies. 

He didn’t think about how he didn’t belong, or what Natasha’s up to, or where Bucky is, or how everything can go wrong. Whatever else is going on with the party or with the Avengers, he has this. This is enough.


End file.
